Rock men’s soccer lost a tough battle against Seton Hill University in overtime in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) play Wednesday afternoon.
The Rock came up just short with a 3-2 loss. Seton Hill started the game off with a goal in the third minute giving the Griffins an early 1-0 lead.
Head coach of The Rock, Steve Small, said, “we bounced back really well and limited their chances with our defense.”
Slippery Rock held the score to 1-0 in the first half. At 65:32, senior Arran Robertson tied it up against the Griffins 1-1.
Small stated, “the energy was better the second half, they left in on the field.”
The Griffins retaliated with a goal from the top of the box eight minutes after. Directly after the goal was scored, redshirt junior Jonathan Sharp received a red card, ejecting him from the remainder of the game leaving only 10 men on the field.
Even with a one-man disadvantage, the Rock did not let up and eventually tied the game up with a bicycle kick goal over the Seton Hill goalkeeper by sophomore Enrique Trevino.
“It gave the team a boost and put some fight back into all of us,” Trevino said.
Seton Hill pressed on with attempts at goal by they were stopped by redshirt junior Steven Rerick who went in for Sharp to send the game into overtime. The Rock had the first shot in overtime by sophomore Justin Minda who was blocked by the Griffins goalkeeper.
Trevino later attempted at goal in the 97th minute, but that was also blocked. Right after, the Griffins put the one goal they needed on the board with 2:58 remaining to win 3-2. The goal was produced by Seton Hill’s Curtis Gallagher. Minda produced a game-high four shots. Robertson, Trevino, senior Mike Pcholinsky and sophomore George Oakley all had two shots. Redshirt Junior Andre Morgan, sophomore Anthony Werth and senior Patrick Sullivan each tallied one attempt.
Sharp blocked two shots and gave up two goals. Rerick saved three goals and gave up a goal at 20:52. Slippery Rock and Seton Hill recorded 15 total shots on the day and each had 8 shots on goal.
The Rock will play their last home game of their 2016 season and celebrate their senior night on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. against Lock Haven University.
